Über die Brücke Ruhm wartet - 1. FC Saarbrücken

[Jellico73]

      "Über die Brücke Ruhm warte - Across the Bridge Glory waits"     

 

My first football games were English.  Newmarket, Cambridge, and the television back in the early and mid 80's, which then meant a lot of Everton and Liverpool.  When my dad was stationed in Germany, we lived in Volgelweh, which was part of the Kaiserslautern Military Community.  At the time it was (and I think still is) the largest American enclave outside of the United States, with the various bases and personnel within a radius there were at least 100K of us, mostly wondering why we only had one channel on TV in English.  

I did go to a few Kaiserslautern games, they weren't a bad team then.  I did see a couple of Saarbrücken games as well, and when I went looking for a new save to tide me over until FM18 comes out, I took a look at their history online.

They started playing in 1903, and until the start of World War Two had won several regional lower league titles.  After the Second World War, the Saarland region was administered by the French.    Various efforts were made to see the Saarland become either independent, or a part of France.  FC Saarbrucken was forced out of German football in 1948, and rather than participate in the Ehrenliga, a short lived league the other saarland teams participated in; the joined the French Football association as FC Sarrebruck, and won the Ligie 2 title in 1949.  However, because of resistance from other clubs (primarily RC Strasbourg, who had been forced to play in Germany in the War), they were refused promotion to Ligue 1, and found themselves being shut out of Ligue 2.  The team withdrew from the Ligue, and existed by playing friendlies for two years, and also organized the Internationaler Saarland Pokal (International Saarland Cup) that had them play fifteen home matches against teams from Austria, Chile, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. The top three sides then joined hosts Saarbrücken in a playoff round, which the home team eventually won in a 4–0 victory over Stade Rennais. The next year fellow Saarlanders VfB Neunkirchen co-hosted the tournament which this time included more German sides. The tournament was abandoned in 1952 as an agreement was reached to allow teams from the Saarland re-admission to the German Football Association.  This was an interesting time in Saarland sports, because of the regions political status, the team did not have an official association with either French or German football, and as a result the Saarland has a 1952 Olympic Team, and because of its membership in FIFA, a 1954 World Cup team.  Yes, 10 of the starters were from FC Sarbrucken, but they finished well, second in the group behind West Germany.

In 1953 the team wasagain part of the Oberliga Sudwest, and won the division and advanced to the national final.  When the Bundesliga was officially created in 1963, 1 FC Sabrucken was one of the original 16 teams.  It was a controversial choice, as the Bundesliga team selection relied on a criteria based upon performance, financial health, and geographic location.  There were better teams in the area, Pirmasens and Worms among them, but the clubs longtime affiliation with Hermann Neuberger, who at the time was a very influential person ion German Football and a member of the selection committee, is most likely why they were chosen.

There stay in the Bundesliga did not last long, they were the first team relegated out.  They made their way back to the Bundesliga in 1976, after finishing in 1st place in the 2nd Bundesliga Sud, but were relagted again in 1978.  Thus began several years of yo-yoing success, slipping all the way to the Amateru Oberliga Sudwest in 1981, returning to the Bundelsiga in 1986, being relegated again, returning to the Bundesliga in 1993, and being relegated again.  The teams fionances were in ruins in 1995, and they were denied a license and sent back down to the Regionliga West/Sudwest.  Since then they have moved back and forth between the second and fifth tiers of German Football.  Their last bit of success came in 2009-2010, where after back to back promotions, they found themselves in the 3. Liga.  They remained a midtable team there until a disastrous 2013-2014 season had them finish bottom of the table.  36 players and four head coaches could not keep them from being relegated.  They qualified fro promotion back to the 3. Liga the next season, but lost in the promotion round.

1. FC Saarbrücken now play in the Regionalliga Südwest.  They are a professional team with and owner that loves the club.  Adequate youth facilities, Average training facilties, they are predicted to finish 4th.  However, their finances are insecure, which is going to cause problems in the short term, and in the long term as well if they are not sorted out.  

My goal, as with my previous save, is to take this lower league team back up thru the ranks, to the top of the Bundesliga, and win a few other cups and trophy's along the way.

New coach, new town, new team, same goals.  Saarbrücken translates to 'Saar bridges', and there a dozen of them that cross the river in the this town.

"Über die Brücke Ruhm warte - Across the Bridge Glory waits"

Now, if I could only find which of the twelve bridges that is...

Thanks for reading and following!

Jellico73

[GermanTerrier89]

I can't wait to read this as I am from Saarlouis, approximately 20 km away from Saarbrücken!

[Jellico73]

I'll have the first season update tomorrow.  Have to finish playing it out tonight.

Thanks for reading and following!

Jellico73

[withnail316]

Fellow military brat who grew up in Germany here, only my first TV games were more Liverpool and Arsenal (hence my disdain for the latter, but that's another story.)

Looking forward to this. 

[Jellico73]

      "Über die Brücke Ruhm warte - Across the Bridge Glory waits"     

 

The game only comes with the ability to play 2. Bundesliga I think, so I had to download a mos to play the lower league teams.

This is the one I am using:

14-02-17 - German Football League System

One of the things I like about this mod is that it changes the names of the Regions, teams and cups, but I will admit, some of these team names are quite long.  It is kind of fun to see there full name scroll across the commentary.

Meet Valentin Krieger, the new head coach of your FC Saabrucken team:

I had to block out some info because this was taken at the end of the season...total PBKAC error on my end.

"Die Molschder" have been picked by the pundits to finish 4th in the Regionalliga Sudwest.  In order to be promoted to the  3. Liga, you not only need to come in 1st place, but you need to place in the top 2 of the promotion playoff, which is a round robin tournament between all the winners of the other Regionalliga.  While on paper that doesn't look to challenging, almost all the of the Bundesliga second teams are in the RegionalLiga.  Sudwest has KC Kaiserslautern II, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II, VfB Stuttgart II; the other regions also have a lot of II teams.

Player wise, we are about what I expected.  Some very good older players, some younger players with potential, and some dependable fill ins.  We don't have a transfer budget, and out payroll is not to big either, in fact I'm right up against it before a game has been played.

I am going to play a 3-4-1-2 and a 4-2-3-1 primarily.  I've had a lot of success with those formations, and the team has enough good players for me to use them both equally.

Felitciano Zschüsschen is my best attacking player.  4 star current, 4 star potential ability, the Curacaoan International (18 appearances with 16 goals) is a Target Man who can also play AM(L) and AM(R) very well, and AM(C) in a pinch if need be.  He shoots with Power, which is not a bad thing IMO.

Patrick Schmidt is my second striker, also primarily a Target Man,  3 star current, 3 1/2 potential ability, he doesn't like big matches, and he doesn't play any other positions.

Sven Sokler is my AM(C), but he can play all the M and AM positions if need be.  I like using an Enganche, and he's very good

Mario Muller plays all the left side of the field positions, but will primarily play M(L).  3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential, he a solid player.

Team Captain Manuel Zeitz plays a very good DM and a very capable M(C), and he'll be my primary DLP.  3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential, his leaderships and teamwork skills are middling, but I don't like rocking the boat too much after arriving.

Marco Holt also prefers to play DM, but he's also a very good M(C), and can play about 6 other positions if I need him too.  Also a 3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential player.  

Alexandre Mwendy is my starting M(R), who also plays a very good D(R), WB(R) and AM(R). 3 star current, 3 star potential ability, He likes to look for the pass, which is very good for my wingers.  

Alexander Hahn plays D(C) and D(L),  3 star current, 3 1/2 potential ability has some very nice technical skills for his position at this level.

Dominic Rau plays D(C), D(R) and WB(R) all very well, and with 3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential ability, will be a solid starter on the backline.  

Arne SIcker is a loan player from Holstein Kiel, who is primarily a D(L), but who I am retraining to be a D(C).  3 1/2 current, 4 1/2 star potential, he's better than the other defensive backs I have on the squad.

Tammo Harder is also on loan from Holstein Kiel, the 3 1/2 star current, 4 star potential player can play all of the midfield positions, and is a capable Advanced Forward and Poacher as well.  He will be my primary rotation player on the offense.

Goalkeeper is probably my weakest position starter wise.  Ricco Cymer is 2 1/2 current, 3 1/2 star potential player, but his Anticipation, Determination, and Stamina are horrible.

Dennis Wegner, Markus Mendler, and Marco Meyerhoffer will also get starts, and will be in the regular rotation as well.

One of the things I am absolutely loving about the Regionalliga is the substitutions.  Yes, you're still limited to three, but you get nine (!) players on the bench.  After suffering thru the 5 players, 3 subs rule in the French Lower Leagues, this is fabulous, and makes life a little easier.

 

     

      

    

BENCH PLAYERS:

         

 

In the Regionalliga you play 34 games, not including the Pokal games.  The team started out with zero knowledge of the tactics I wanted to use, which I thought could cause some problems early on, so I kept the training on Match Tactics a bit longer than usual.

We had 4 Friendlies to start the season, two Swiss Team, a German Regional Liga team, and Olympique Marseille.  I hope we're getting some money for that last one.

The preseason was OK, but I was able to tweak the shouts a little to see what worked and what didn't.  Zschüsschen looks to be the real deal, and while I'm wary about playing both him and Schmist as Target Men, (One on attack, the other on support), his Hat Trick against the Old Boys was nice to see.

I did loan out two player, Deniz Eraydin and David Kazaryan are both U20 Strikers I wanted to get first team playing time.

Schedule wise, we got off to a better start than I expected, and finished the first third of the season about where I expected:

I have no idea how good any of theses teams are, or how good any of their players are, so the only thing I can judge at the moment is my team.

And were doing very well.  A 4-1 win is always a nice way to start a season.  Our first stage game of the DFB-Pokal was a nailbiter, as ETSC Weiche took us to PK's, but our kickers were just enough better than theirs.

Our first loss was to FC Nottingen.  We had more shots than them (20/9), more on target (8/4) and a decided possession advantage (55/45), but it took a Felit (his name is way to long to keep typing out) goal in the 90th minute to break the clean sheet.

Our next couple of wins came courtesy of some late game goals, before we tied KSV Hessen Kassel.

Then we got to face RB Leipzig in out DFB-Pokal Second Round Match.  Yes, the 1. Bundesliga team.  Ultimately, I didn't want to be embarrassed, they ran us into the ground.  We scored, a Sokler goal in the 61st minute, which I consider an accomplishment, but it really wasn't that much of a contest.  

The one thing I found out the hard way, players are suspended a match after their second yellow.  That explains the 9 sub rule I think...

After losing to RB Leipzig, we had a pretty good run.   Beating Pirmasens was nice, and while we only tied VfB Stuttgart II, we had to come back from two goals down to do it, and I was very happy to see the boys pull even against the team predicted to finish 2nd.  Wormatia and Kickers Offenbach are two of the better teams in the liga, and I will take a draw over a loss with them any day of the week.

Dillengen is a team that plays two levels below us, and it was two defensive lapses that led to their goals, which made the game look a lot closer than it actually was.

Another tie against Entracht Trier 05, and the first third of our season was done, and we were doing very well, in 6th place.  We had a big test coming up, as TSG Hoffenheim II was coming to town.  Predicted to finish first, they have a strong roster.

The Hoofenheim game is where it all started clicking for us.  The team was finally more than 2/3rds comfortable with the formations, I had a nice rotation going.  I was looking for a nice performance against TSG, I wasn't expecting a 5-0 shutout win.  Sokler, Zschusschen and Schmidt have become a very nice trio up front, and the defense behind them has really started to gel as well.  This games could have been a lot worse for TSG, as we had more shots (22/7), more on goal (16/2) and a decided possession advantage (60/40).  I went Defesnive the last 20 minutes of the game, after goals 2 minutes apart from Sokler and Schmidt put us well ahead, and Hoffenheim just gave up.  The Hoofenheim game was also the start of a 10 game streak that did not see us lose any games.  

Beating Kaiserslautern II by two goals was very nice, and while the 6-1 win and 6-2 wins over SC Teutonia Watzenborn and FC Nottingen look impressive, in reality they are the two worse teams in the league at the point I played them.  

Again, our Kwartfinale game against Wiesbach looks a lot closer than it actually was.  And 11th minute goal by Recktenwald put Wiesbach ahead, but them we went on an offensive spike, and while the score looks close, it should have been more, as we had 29 shots on goal, but only 9 on target, and a 57/43 possession advantage.

Tying Astoria Walldorf was a good result, as they were the 3rd place team in the Liga.

The 5-3 loss to Hessen Kassel was fun to watch, Schmeer had a hat trick for them, but again it was yet another game we dominated statistically. 16/8 in shots, 4/6 On Target, 58/42 possession advantage.  

VfB Stuggart II was a tough match, but Soklers brace saw us thru.  

The tie against Pirmasens was annoying, they were in a relegation fight the whole season, and they just dominated us this game.  Hopwever, we were ahead 3-1, but a Charlie Rugg goal in the 75th minute saw them pull close, and a 91st minute PK by Steil tied the game up.  To say I was a bit disgusted with the result is an understatement.  

In the Saarland Landespokal Semi Final, TSV Steinbach played us tough, but first half goals by Holz and Zeitz saw us thru.  Steinbacj scored on a 91st minute goal that I swear occurred as my team was walking off the pitch, but we were in the final of our regional Pokal, which was a goal I was aiming for.

As the last third of the season came to a close, were we in first place, but there were a couple of teams snipping at our heals.  Faltering would mean not getting to the promotion playoff, and that was my goal this season.  

 

We closed out strong. 

Losing to Kickers Offenbach was bad, as they were 2nd in the Liga, and winning put them within 3 points of us.  But, while we gave up goals, we also scored goals as well, and despite the loss to mid table FC 08 Homburg, we clinched 1st place and the protion playoff chance that week.

Beating SV 07 Elversberg in the Saarlan Landspokal Final, and Stuttgart kicker to finish the season off, was a very nice way to win.

Now, as I understand it, the promotion playoff is a six team event, where you play a home and away game against one opponent, and then the top two teams after the first round are promoted.  

We played Borussia Mönchengladbach II;  SV Werder Bremen II played RB Leipzig II; Vfl Wolfsburg II played Bayen Munchen II.

We tied away, 1-1 on a Zschusschen goal in the 51st minute.  3 Days later another Zschusschen goal gave us a 1 -0 victory, and we won promotion to the 3. Liga!

With 18 wins, 12 Draws, and 4 losses, we finished 3 points ahead of Kickers Offenbach.  

Felitciano Zschüsschen had a very nice season in 35(0) appearances in German Competition, he had 21 goals, 12 assists, 4 POM's and a 7.31 rating.  He also had 5 goals and an assist in the Caribbean Championship.

In 24(2) appearances in German Competition Patrick Schmidt had 8 goals, 9 assists, 2 POM's and a 7.22 rating.

Sven Sokler also had a very nice season, in 37(0) German Competition appearences he had 14 goals, 10 assists, 2 PK's, 5 POM's and a 7.35 rating.

In 21(2) appearences Tammo Harder had 9 goals, 7 assists, 3 POM's and a 7.56 rating.  

Mwendy had 6 goals, Holz had 5, Muller had 5 goals and 8 assists, all told seventeen players had a goal for us this season, giving us 79 in total, good enough for 1st in the Liga.  

We had some award winners as well:

   

 

In World News:

PSG beat Barcelona to win the Champions League.  Manchester United beat Inter Milan to win the Europa League.

Bayern Munchen won the Bundesliga with 86 points, Bayer Leverkeusen was second with 75 points.  RB Leipzig won the DFB Pokal, beating Schalke.

Liverpool(!) won the Premier League, with 82 points.  Arsenal and Manchester each had 81 points, Arsenal had the better differential.

PSG won Ligue 1 with 93 points.  Monaco finished 2nd with 77 points.  The more things change....

Napoli won Seria A with 81 points, Juventus was 2nd with 78 points, AC Milan 3rd.

Athletico Madrid won La Liga with 91 points, Barcelona had 90, Real Madrid 89.

Messi won the World Golden Ball, Pogba was second, Antoine Griezmann 3rd.  

USL Dunkerque finished 2nd, and was promoted to Ligue 2.

 

So, with summer underway, the clubs finances are my biggest concern.  The club had to put money in to keep us going last season, and they've taken away all of my transfer budget to boot.  I will have some players leaving, and I've got the scouts scouring the lists and whatnot.  I think we should finish mid table this year, and I want to build for that possibility.  

Thanks for Reading and Following!

Jellico73

[Jellico73]

Just a minor delay on this, Harvey has thrown a spanner into the works at my job, and I have not had a lot of desire to sit in front of my home computer after spending all day in front of my work computer.

Jellico73

[Jellico73]

      "Über die Brücke Ruhm warte - Across the Bridge Glory waits"     

 

Our first season in the 3. Liga was going to be tough.  The pundits fixed us to finish 20th, and to be relegated back to the Regionalliga.  The board just wanted us to avoid finishing last.  To that end they did not give me any transfer money, but they did give us a slightly higher wage budget.  However, that increase was not at all substantial, and many of my players had wage increases that were tied into promotion.

First order of business, was transfers.  Without any transfer money, I could alter my wage budget a little to get some, and the possibility of selling players was there, but my share of the revenue was maybe 30%.

First, the ins:

Tim Welker is a backup player, with 2 star current and 2 1/2 star potential ability, he's a D(CR) who's going to be a backup player, because none of my youth players are ready for primetime.  Or even late late night time.

Steffen Nkansah com,es in on a free from Borussia Mönchengladbach.  I'm paying almost 5K a week for him, because he's a 3 star current, 4 star potential D(Everywhere) player who can also play M(C).  I like to switch between a 3-4-2-1 and a 4-3-2-1 and a Defensive player who can play a lot of positions very well makes that switch much easier.

Kai Kleinert is a striker who can also play AM(C) and M(C).  3 star current, 3 1/2 star potential, he's a very good Advanced Forward and Poacher, which fits in with the formation I play.  23 years old, some of his physicals are not where I want them to be, but his salary was not onerous at all.

Marcel Hilßner comes in on loan from SG Dynamo Dresden.  At 3 1/2 star current, 4 star potential, he's primarily a M(L) who also plays AM(L), AM(C), and M(C) very well.

Michael Schindele is a 3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential D(C) with some very good Physicals for this level.  He can play DM and M(C), but I want him to be the primary D(C) in my backline.

At the end of the season, a couple of players came in:

Marin Kovac is a 3 1/2 star current, 4 star potential DM and M(C).  He's a very good halfback, and I can drop him back at time to help as needed.  Also some very good physicals for the level of play.

Christian Landu-Landu comes from Norway, a 3 1/2 star current, 3 1/2 star potential player who can play all the defensive middle positions very well.  I was looking for a Ball Winning Midfielder, and he beings some very goos skills to the team.

Ahmed Razeek is a Sri Lankan International.  With 2/12 star current ability, 3 1/2 star potential ability, his primary position in AM(R), but he's also a very good M(R), WB(R), and can play D(R).  He also plays AM(L) as well.

     

Summer Arrivals:

    

On the outs, we were active, but not in a good way:

Our only sale was Zeitz, and older DM who was OK for us, but wanted to move on.  I put him on the market, and he went to FC Magdeburg, another team in the 3.Liga

Peter Chrappan and Daniel Dorringer were older players whose Determination was very low, which is something I hate.  

Patrick Schmidt was my other striker, and he did not want to sign a new contract.  Then he went and retired, which was unexpected.

Almost all of my good youth players went out on loan, with at least 50% of salaries being covered by the other team.   Yes, many of these teams are regionalliga or lower, but any first team playing time for some of these kids is a good thing.  The only unexpected loss was Steve Zellner, who suffered a catastrophic knee injury, and ended up retiring as a result.

My goal for the season was to avoid a relegation battle.  I don't mind finishing lower table, but I am desperate to avoid going back to the regionalliga.  

The first half of the season went about as well as I expected it:

The friendlies were all very nice warmups.

Historically speaking, in the 50's when the team was "In the wild", they hosted a Saarland Cup tournament.  Although were a lower league team, and thus the chances of television revenue was low, but I was able to get some decent teams to participate.

We started the season off with a nice win against Wurzburger Kickers.  Then our next five games we went 0-2-3.  Kai Kleinert has burst onto the scene, a hat trick in his first game, and looks to be a good signing.  

We got back to the right side of things in the DFB-Pokal, a nice 2-1 win against TSV alemannia Aachen.  The next few games were very up and down, the lowlight being the 5-1 drubbing 1. FC Mainz II gave us.  We did win the Saarland Landspokal Second round match, and then two games later 1. FC Mainz 05 (then 3rd in the Bundesliga), trounced us in the Pokal Third Round.  Our last eight games of the season were about as even as you can get, 3 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses.  Were beating the teams as good as and not as good as us, and losing to teams better than us.  When the Winter break rolled around, we were sitting in 17th place, with 5 wins, 5 draws, and 9 losses.

I wanted to go into the winterbreak on a high note, and the quarter final of the Saarlandlandespokal turned out to be the right thing.  A 5-0 sent the boys into the break on a high note, and when they came back, they hit the ground running.  a 4-3 win at top of the table Dynamo Dresden, a 4-1 win against Vfl Wolfsburg II, back to back 4-1 wins against Mettlach in the Saarlan Semi-Final, and Arminia Bielfield saw us move up to midtable quickly.  

Then came a four game losing streak that about pulled the rug from under us, when our defense just kept breaking down.

I had a team meeting after the 4th loss, and the team came out of it motivated.  That motivation translated to on the field success, as we did not lose a game the rest of the season.  Our last game, against Vfr Aalen, was a nailbiter.  Win and we had a chance of finishing 3rd, and getting promoted.  They took an early lead, but we clawed our way back to a tie, but their defense shut us down, and we had to settle for the draw.

The season, by any measure, was an unqualified success.  FInishing 6th was well above expectations, as was winning the Saarland Pokal for the second year in a row.

Kai Kleinert was the signing of the season.  Playing mostly Advanced Forward, in 33 appearances he had 20 goals, 12 assists, 7 POM's and a 7.33 rating.

If not for Kleinert, Felitciano Zschüsschen would have been the teams player of the year.  Playing mostly Target Man, and the occasional AM(L), he had 21 goals, 8 assists, and 7 POM's in 33 appearances.

SVen Sokler turned 33, and his skills started to diminish, but the En Ganche had a fine season, with 10 goals, 10 assists, and 3 POM's in 30 games.  This may be his last season with the team though.

Playing M(R) and AM(R), Markus Mendler played a full season, and his 3 goals, 9 assists and POM showed what he was capable of as a full time starter.

Marcel Hilßner had a solid season playing M(C) for us.  While his 2 goals, 2 assists and 1 POM in 31 matches aren't great, they are better than any of the younger players on my team.

Marco Holz had a solid season as well at M(C).  1 goal, 5 assists and a POM in 33 matches, he played primarily DLP and did a solid job.

Mario Müller did not score in his 23 appearances, but did have 5 assists.  He did miss a few weeks with an injury.

My Defensive Backs were a rotated bunch, mostly due to injury and health.

Alexander Hahn had a solid season, in 24 appearances he had 2 goals, an assist, and a POM.  Michael Schindele had 24 appearances and was mostly meh.  Sascha Wenninger had 2 goals in 14 games at primarily D(L).  Arne Sicker, back again on loan from Holstein Kiel, was a solid defender at D(C) and D(L) in 20 games.

Steffen Nkansah was as advertised.  Playing D(C), in 27 appearances he had 3 goals, 3 assists, a POM, and was very good defensively.

I really want to like Ricco Cymer.  But in 37 appearances he allowed 63 goals, or 1.7 a game.  He had 1 fewer shutout this season than last season, and our defense was arguably better than last years.  Maybe not as lot better, but better.  I am pretty sure this season is his last with the team.

Overall, our first season in the 3. Budesliga was troublesome.  Yes, we finished 6th, because the team caught fire the second half and went on a scoring run I am not sure we can replicate.  And it's a good thing we were scoring because or defense fell apart when I needed them to hold.  Of our 9 draws, we were leading aftether the 60th minute in 4 of them.  Of Our 13 losses, we had the lead in 6 of them at half time.  The defense needs to get better (see the signing above).

But, we've shown we can compete with the bigger boys.

Now lets see if we can stay there.

Thanks for reading and following!
 

Jellico73

[Jellico73]

Forgot the World News Info:

 

In World News:

In an All German Champions League, Bayern Munchen beat Borussia Dortmund a to win the Champions League.  Tottenham beat Chelsea to win the Europa League.

Bayern Munchen won the Bundesliga with 83 points, Borussia Dortmund was second with 77 points.  1. FC Koln won the DFB Pokal, beating RB Leipzig.

Man U won the Premier League, with 88 points.  Arsenal had 80, and Tottenham each had 76 points.

PSG won Ligue 1 with 99 points.  Monaco finished 2nd with 83 points.  

Roma won Seria A with 81 points, Juventus and AC Milan tied for second with 74 points, AC Milan was 3rd on a differential of -1

In La Liga, Barcelona and Athletico Madrid each had 96 points, but Barca swept the regular season series between the two, so Athletico came in 2nd.

Messi won the World Golden Ball, Mata was second, Suarez 3rd.  

USL Dunkerque won 3 games, drew 10, and lost 25 on the way to finishing last in Ligue 2, and was relegated back to the CNA.

 

Thanks for reading and following!
 

Jellico73

[Jellico73]

For some reason the game keeps crashing at a certain point, and for the time being I have not been able to proceed with this save.

We did fight our way into 2. Bundesliga, but the team finances are a mess, and I suspect it's that particular issue causing the database to crash.  

Anyhow, I will do this save again in FM18.

Thanks,

Jellico73